Furious, funny and potentially fatal: hiphop’s 20 greatest diss tracks – ranked!
20. Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar – Like That (2024)
Whether you view the beef that has consumed hip-hop’s upper echelons as a spicy addition to the genre or a dispiriting Trumpian exercise by grandstanding millionaires, it’s hard not to love the fire and venom of Lamar’s verse here, bashing J Cole and Drake.
19. The Game – 300 Bars N Runnin (2005)
The diss track as an act of dogged persistence: 300 Bars N Runnin – written after 50 Cent reignited a supposedly quashed feud with the Game – goes on for the best part of 15 minutes. The shifting production deftly mirrors the umpteen lyrical references to hip-hop classics, as the Game relentlessly slings abuse the way of 50 Cent and G-Unit.
18. Roxanne Shante – Have a Nice Day (1987)
Shante may have single-handedly invented the hip-hop beef with 1984’s UTFO-bashing Roxanne’s Revenge, but Have a Nice Day – provoked by a sexist insult from “featherweight” KRS-One in
Boogie Down Productions’ The Bridge Is Over and actually written by Big Daddy Kane – is the better track, lyrically and musically: “Step back, peasants!”
17. Canibus – Second Round KO (1998)
A classic case of winning the battle but losing the war. Of the various diss tracks that flew between LL Cool J and the hotly tipped young rapper Canibus, Second Round KO, complete with a Mike Tyson cameo, is the best (and most stinging). But Canibus’s career soon faded; LL Cool J’s reputation as one of hip-hop’s pioneers remains intact.
16. Nicki Minaj – Roman’s Revenge (ft Eminem) (2010)
Aimed at Lil’ Kim – “has-been/hang it up/flatscreen” – Roman’s Revenge takes its title from the original diss track, Roxanne’s Revenge, and features Minaj and Eminem’s alter egos trading ferocious verses. Minaj’s have the edge, relegating Slim Shady’s disturbing invective to a supporting role. Lil’ Kim’s response, Black Friday, was no match whatsoever.
15. Gucci Mane – Truth (2012)
Anger, as John Lydon once suggested, is an energy. Gucci Mane is no one’s idea of a deep lyricist, but his beef with fellow Atlantan Young Jeezy – which had already resulted in the death of Jeezy’s associate Pookie Loc – inspired Truth, a track that punches through via sheer simmering rage.
14. Eazy-E – Real Muthaphuckkin G’s (1993)
Eazy-E’s response to shots fired by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg throughout 1992’s The Chronic isn’t just brutal –
it’s also perceptive, at least with regard to the grim atmosphere around Suge Knight and Death Row Records: “Gotta follow your sergeant’s directions / Or get your ass popped with this Smith and Wesson.”
13. 50 Cent – How to Rob (1999)
Not so much a diss track as a kamikaze act of provocation aimed at, well, everybody: 49 artists in total, ranging from Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z to the Trackmasters (which seemed a bit much, given the Trackmasters produced it). How to Rob is uproariously funny and, as a debut single, it did the job: attention was duly attracted.
12. The Notorious BIG – Kick in the Door (1997)
Another diss track with plenty of vituperation and a plethora of great lines, but no particular target, Kick in the Door takes on Nas, Jeru the Damaja, 2Pac (possibly) and sundry members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Its dismissive tone is amplified by a fantastic beat sampling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
11. Lauryn Hill – Lost Ones (1998)
There is no getting around the fact that most celebrated diss tracks are by men, but the fabulous Lost Ones is proof that you don’t need an excess of testosterone to land a succession of bruising lyrical punches. Hill’s ex-bandmate and ex-boyfriend Wyclef Jean gets it in the neck as Sister Nancy’s reggae classic Bam Bam provides the earworm hook.
10. Eminem – Killshot (2018)
You have to be impressed by Machine Gun Kelly’s cojones. Accused of making inappropriate comments on social media about Eminem’s underage daughter Hailie, he recorded a diss track called Rap Devil, with perhaps inevitable results. Killshot, a huge commercial success, finds Eminem sounding utterly re-energised, dispatching MGK with lethal precision and wit.
9. Boogie Down Productions – South Bronx (1986)
The Bridge Wars – ostensibly about hip-hop’s birthplace – was one of the earliest beefs. There is every chance that KRS-One wilfully misunderstood what MC Shan was saying on 1986’s The Bridge, but his response, the James Brown-sampling South Bronx, is the feud’s classic, a history lesson peppered with insults.
8. Common – The Bitch in Yoo (1996)
A feud that started over the direction of hip-hop itself. Common called gangsta rap “showbiz” on I Used to Love
HER; Ice Cube took offence, calling Common a “pussy-whipped bitch”. The Bitch in Yoo was the response. Gently paced musically but lethal lyrically, it mocked Cube’s declining sales and less stellar film roles.
7. Drake – Back to Back (2015)
Riled by Meek Mill’s claim that Drake used ghostwriters – a fairly common complaint about Drake – Back to Back ruthlessly mocked Mill’s relationship with the more successful Nicki Minaj and announced that he had been “bodied” by a rapper who sings: a brilliant combo of self-own and selfaggrandisement. It was nominated for a Grammy; how many diss tracks can you say that about?
6. Dr Dre – Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’) (ft Snoop Dogg (1992)
The bitter fallout from NWA’s breakup inspired more diss tracks on this list than anything else. Riding a monster G-funk bassline, Dre’s contribution is more wearily dismissive than angry. Snoop gets most of the best lines, although Dre’s drawling delivery of “put down the candy and let the little boy go” is a delight.
5. Pusha T – The Story of Adidon (2018)
One critic called The Story of Adidon “bringing a gun to a knife fight”; some people thought its revelations about Drake’s secret son, and hypotheses about Drake’s psyche, went too far. But diss tracks are meant to be vicious and wounding – and The Story of Adidon is almost clinical in its character assassination. Tellingly, Drake never released a track in response.
4. Jay-Z – Takeover (2001)
Is Takeover or Nas’s Ether the best track from their long-running feud? In truth, as tracks, there is nothing in it. Takeover’s Doors-sampling beat is inspired and the lyrics are superb: teasing, but not revealing, gossiping about Nas’s private life, needling him about everything from declining sales to publishing money.
3. Nas – Ether (2001)
Ironically, Takeover’s taunts about Nas’s declining inspiration since his debut, Illmatic, provoked Nas into an Illmatic-standard response. Ether edges Takeover because it rattled Jay-Z: his response, Supa Ugly, was a disaster for which his mum made him publicly apologise. To “ether” someone subsequently became hip-hop slang for lyrical evisceration.
2. Ice Cube – No Vaseline (1991)
It was, perhaps, a mistake for NWA to take on the departed Ice Cube, by far the most talented MC in the group. No
Vaseline opens with samples of their disses, before unleashing the full power of his lyrical ability on them to hair-raising effect. Suffice to say, there was no response.
1. 2Pac – Hit ’Em Up (ft the Outlawz) (1996)
In one sense, it’s the prime example of a diss track gone wrong. Arguments still rage over whether Notorious BIG’s Who Shot Ya? was really aimed at 2Pac, or just an ill-timed release, but Hit ’Em Up was explicitly designed to exacerbate the east coast-west coast feud – and everyone knows how that turned out. But, as a hip-hop track, it’s extraordinary: a virtually unprecedented explosion of lividity and spite incongruously set to the most laid-back of beats (Dennis Edwards’ soul classic Don’t Look Any Further, via Eric B & Rakim’s Paid in Full). Its anger feels real, almost nihilistic – nearly 30 years on, it still sounds shocking.
of his allies on the right by exhorting Israel to “finish up your war”.
“Israel has to be very careful, because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support,” Trump said in a March interview with the conservative Israeli publication Israel Hayom. “You have to finish up, you have to get the job done. And you have to get on to peace.”
Asked in a later interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt whether his comments had been misconstrued, Trump again implored Israel to “get it over with”, warning that the country was “absolutely losing the PR war”. Biden has similarly expressed concern that Israel’s tactics in Gaza are hurting its international standing.
“Let’s get back to peace and stop killing people,” Trump told Hewitt.
Calling for peace, but little regard for Palestinians
Trump has not outlined how he believes peace might be achieved or what he envisions for the region after the conflict ends. When pressed on his position, Trump mostly repeats his claim that the war wouldn’t have happened if he were in power.
“I just think Trump is delusional on this point,” John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, said in a recent appearance on CNN. “It’s a point that nobody can refute or confirm one way or the other. He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation.”
Playing critic, rather than prospective commander-in-chief, has seemingly worked in Trump’s favor: voters gave him far better marks than Biden on his handling of foreign conflicts as president, according to an April New York Times and Siena Collegesurvey.
And by mostly remaining on the sidelines, some analysts say, he is better positioned to exploit the deep division in the Democratic coalition over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war, one of the president’s biggest perceived vulnerabilities before the election.
Aaron David Miller, who served for two decades as a state department analyst, negotiator and adviser on Middle East issues for both Democratic and Republican administrations, said a future Trump administration was unlikely to show much sympathy to the Palestinian cause.
“He could care less, frankly, about how the Israelis are treating the Palestinians,” said Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Forget any kind of rehabilitation or reconstruction for Gaza,” he added, unless rebuilding the territory was a condition for achieving “some historic something” in the region, such as a normalization of ties between Israeli and Saudi Arabia.
In statements since the war began, Trump has promised, if elected, to cut off all US aid to Palestinians and urged other nations to follow suit if he returns to the Oval Office.
The former president also pledged to bar refugees from Gaza under an expansion of his first-term travel ban on Muslim-majority countries; expel immigrants who sympathize with Hamas; revoke the visas of foreign students deemed “anti-American” or “antisemitic”; and impose “strong ideological screening” to keep out foreign nationals who “want to abolish Israel”.
Trump’s pitch to Jewish voters
In a statement, Trump’s campaign accused Biden and Democrats of supporting Israel’s enemies and said leftwing criticism of Netanyahu’s government was pushing American Jews into the former president’s camp.
“Jewish Americans are realizing that the Democrat party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, proterrorist cabal, and that’s why more and more Jewish Americans are supporting President Trump,” said a campaign spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt.
But Trump’s outreach to Jewish voters, a wide majority of whom tend to support Democrats, has faced accusations of antisemitism.
Earlier this month, Trump told reporters in Georgia that “any Jewish person that votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined”. In a March interview with his former aide Sebastian Gorka, Trump claimed that any Jewish American who backs the Democrats “hates their religion” and “everything about Israel”.
The comments, which echoed previous statements he has made, were widely condemned for invoking an antisemitic trope that Jewish citizens hold “dual loyalty” to both the US and Israel.
But Trump has also honed a sharpedged pitch aimed at evangelical Christians, a crucial part of his base whose fierce support of Israel has helped shape Republican foreign policy.
Casting himself as the great protector of the world’s only Jewish state, Trump vowed in an October speech to “defend western civilization from the barbarians and savages and fascists that you see now trying to do harm to our beautiful Israel”.
Lessons from Trump’s presidency
Though Trump has sent mixed signals about his views of the war, his policies as president unambiguously favored Israel.
During his presidency, Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in a reversal of longstanding US policy. He also slashed funding to the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees and closed the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington.
In 2018, he withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal, a move cheered by Republicans and Netanyahu. The following year, the Trump administration again broke with decades of precedent to declare that the US no longer considered Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law. The Biden administration reversed this policy in February.
Late in his presidency, Trump unveiled a Middle East “peace” plan that granted most of Israel’s long-held demands, ensuring its swift rejection by Palestinian leaders.
The former president’s biggest accomplishment in the region was the so-called Abraham accords, clinched in 2020, which normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. In remarks to Jewish donors and activists, Trump claimed he had been on the verge of bringing Iran into the deal, even though he spent much of his presidency antagonizing Tehran, most notably by ordering the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
While Israel and Iran appear to have pulled back from the brink of a spiraling regional war, tensions in the region remain high. Meanwhile, Trump has been isolated in a New York courtroom, where the former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal trials.
Israel and a second Trump term
Trump has yet to provide any substantive details on how he views the role of the US in resolving the current conflict,and his campaign did not respond to questions about his postwar plans for Gaza or whether he supported a two-state solution.
But recent comments from Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, both of whom helped set his first-term Middle East policy, reflect Netanyahu’s rightwing, nationalist vision for the region.
Friedman recently unveiled a proposal for Israel to annex the West Bankbased on the country’s biblical claims to the occupied land. In an interview last month, Trump did not say whether he supported the plan but said he planned to meet with Friedman to discuss it. (His campaign declined to say whether the meeting had taken place.)
In a February interview with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University, Kushner, a real estate scion married to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, said Gaza’s “waterfront property” could be “very valuable”. He also suggested Israel could move civilians out of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, to Israel’s Negev desert while Israeli forces “finish the job” there. Asked about fears that Palestinians who flee Gaza may not be allowed to return, he said: “I am not sure there is much left of Gaza at this point.”
At another point, Kushner described proposals to give the Palestinians their own state as a “super bad idea” that “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”.
Miller recalled a 2017 conversation with Kushner in which Kushner outlined three key pillars of Trump’s Middle East policy that Miller believes would extend to a second term.
They were, according to Miller, to make it “impossible” for an Israeli prime minister to say no to Trump, develop “strategic partnerships” with the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia; and to create a “whole new paradigm for how to deal with the Palestinian issue”.
If Trump returns to the White House next year, Miller expects little change in his approach: “I think that his foreign policy will continue to be chaotic, transactional and opportunistic.”
Biden v Trump: What’s in store for the US and the world?
On Thursday 2 May, 3-4.15pm ET, join Tania Branigan, David Smith, Mehdi Hasan and Tara Setmayer for the inside track on the people, the ideas and the events that might shape the US election campaign. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live
Trump is delusional on this point. He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser